Dance Partners
by rhrshipper23
Summary: A missing moment from 7x20. I swear I started this fic with a different pair in mind and it just snowballed and got away from me.


"Thank you," Arizona whispered, as she cupped Callie's cheek with her hand.

"For what?" Callie asked, pulling her wife closer as they swayed near the edge of the dance floor.

"For saying yes to what was probably the worst proposal in the history of proposals." Arizona leaned forward and kissed her gently. "It wasn't exactly traditional or romantic."

"Maybe not," Callie conceded, "but the fact that you did propose and _meant_ it was all that mattered to me." She brought her hand up to cover the one Arizona still had on her cheek. "Besides, your second attempt was much, much more romantic and will be the one I'll be telling our grandkids about thirty years from now."

Arizona grinned as she lifted Callie's hand and brought it to her lips, reverently kissing the diamond band that adorned her ring finger. She started to lean in closer, when a not-so-subtle cough drew her attention away from her wife's lips.

"Er…I know this probably isn't the best time," Mark said from behind her, "but I was wondering if I could cut in."

Shooting Callie a reproachful look, Arizona sighed and stepped to the side. "Sure Mark."

"Actually," he said, glancing first at Callie before settling on Arizona and extending a hand, "I was hoping to dance with…uh…you."

Arizona stood frozen, staring at the offered hand rather dumbly until Callie placed a hand on her back and helpfully pushed her forward. "I…okay." She took his hand and allowed him to pull her into a loose embrace. She watched as Callie made a beeline for April Kepner, who had already witnessed the exchange and was reaching down to grab her camera. She had to refrain from rolling her eyes as the resident took no less than a dozen photos of her and Mark dancing.

Together.

"I wasn't exactly on board with the whole wedding thing when Callie first told me," Mark admitted.

Arizona sighed. "The circumstances weren't…ideal," she admitted. "I mean, I proposed in the middle of a fight. About you, actually. Not the best way to do it, you know? Especially considering what happened next."

Mark nodded, turning them around in order to watch his best friend over Arizona's shoulder. She had drifted over to the bar where her father and the chief were seated, laughing at something that he couldn't quite catch over the sound of the music. "She's happy," he observed, gently squeezing the hand that he held. "_You_ make her happy. And I guess I was afraid."

Arizona pulled back and peered at him. She knew that Mark Sloan was many things. Arrogant, yes. Clever, yes. But afraid? "What are you talking about?"

"Callie was committing herself to you," he explained, once again pulling her close so she couldn't see his face. "That's like a forever thing. And with Sofia… you'd have this family. You'd _be_ a family." He swallowed hard. "Not that you needed to be married for that or anything. I just didn't know where I fit in anymore."

Arizona found the irony of the situation rather astounding. "Believe me, I can relate," she told him. "You'll always be Sofia's father, Mark."

"And you'll always be her mother," he cut in. " l know that I gave you a hard time before she was born and lashed out at you that night when we thought Callie…" his words drifted off, and they swayed for a long moment, both lost to the memories of that terrible night; remembering the painful words that they exchanged.

Mark stopped dancing and took a step back, bringing his hands up to rest on Arizona's shoulders. "I'm sorry. For what it's worth, I'm sorry that I said that you were nothing."

"Mark—"

"No," he held a hand up to forestall her protest. "You were _never_ nothing. You were…are…_everything_ to her."

"She loves you," Arizona pointed out.

"I know," he acknowledged. "But you left and broke her heart and yet she still wanted to be with you when you came back." He shrugged his shoulders and started to maneuver them around the dance floor once again. "Even after she found out about the baby, all she could think about was you. I even tried proposing to her."

"You…did?" Callie had never mentioned that little tidbit of rather pertinent information.

"It seemed like the right thing to do at the time," Mark said. "It's not every day that your best friend announces that she's pregnant with your child. I figured a grand gesture was in order and I truly believed that we could've made it work." He paused. "But she didn't even consider it. Not for a second, because she had you waiting across the hall. Even before you decided that you wanted to be apart of this. She was so terrified of losing you again."

"I couldn't do that to her," Arizona admitted. "As much as the situation hurt me, I couldn't walk away. And when I heard Sofia's heartbeat on the ultrasound the first time, I knew that there was nowhere else that I wanted to be."

"Yeah, and it felt like you were taking my place," Mark confessed. "And I thought that once the baby was born, I'd be relegated to becoming 'Uncle Mark' whether I liked it or not."

"And here I thought that I didn't even have a place, with you and Callie filling out the traditional parental roles quite easily."

Mark chuckled. "And by traditional parental roles, did you happen to count Callie's extra special vagina vote?"

Arizona couldn't contain her laughter and she held onto Mark as the nearly pitched into The Colonel and Barbara Robbins. "Sorry," she called out to them as she and Mark wisely moved in the opposite direction.

"Is your father always going to refer to me as the 'sperm donor'?" Mark inquired, exasperation evident in his tone. "I mean it's fine for right now, but I don't want to have to explain to Sofia what that means until she's at least eighteen."

"I'll talk to him," Arizona promised him. "I didn't exactly color you in the best light when I explained the whole break up and pregnancy situation. I was attempting to deflect their disappointment over me abandoning Callie in an airport terminal in order to fly halfway across the world."

"I guess it worked," he commented, recalling the utter disdain Arizona's father appeared to have for him.

"He'll grow on you," she assured him.

"Yeah, like a staff infection," he muttered under his breath. "Ow!"

"I heard that," Arizona hissed. "I said I'd talk to him and I'll see if I can downgrade you from 'the sperm donor' to 'that insufferable man'."

"Insufferable?"

"It's a step in the right direction," Arizona insisted. "As it stands, it'll be years until I'll be able to get him to say your name directly."

"Fine…fine," Mark agreed, readily. "'That insufferable man' trumps 'the sperm donor' any day."

"You were never a sperm donor." It was the first time that Arizona ever spoke the words. She may have thought them after Sofia was born, watching the way in which Mark lovingly doted on their daughter. Admitting the truth was harder than she ever imagine. "And," she continued, swallowing against the sudden lump in her throat, "had I not come back from Africa when I did, I think this wedding would've taken place in a church; with a priest presiding over it. With you standing _next_ to Callie, not giving her away.

"You're wrong." Mark surprised Arizona by pulling her into a hug. "Callie turned to me...hell we turned to each other...for comfort, not because of any unresolved feelings of love," he whispered into her ear. "Even when she was with me, all she could do was think about you." He pulled back to look her in the eye. "We both asked her the same question, but she said yes to _you_. I think that says everything."

Arizona felt tears sting her eyes and she blinked them back, not wanting to ruin her makeup. She felt one slip free and track down her cheek. She sniffed as Mark gently brushed it away with his thumb. "You know what?"

"What?" Mark asked as he twirled her rather gracelessly.

Arizona had to grab onto his arms to keep from pitching into a table. She caught Callie's eyes and had to smile at the nearly stunned expression on her wife's face. She turned back to her dance partner and brushed a piece of lint off his shoulders. "I was _going_ to say that I can't wait to see you dance with our daughter at her wedding."

It was Mark's turn to freeze as a hopeful grin emerged on his face. "Yeah?"

Arizona nodded wordlessly. "But after that little stunt you just pulled, I think you might want to invest in some dance lessons first."

"I have perfectly good dancing skills," Mark proclaimed.

"You nearly threw me into a table," Arizona disagreed. "But that's okay, you have plenty of time to get it right."

"That's right. Sofia's not getting married until she's at least thirty," he stated.

"Thirty-five," Arizona insisted. "By the time she graduates from Johns Hopkins—"

"Dartmouth—"

"No way," she declared, shaking her head. "Our daughter is _not_ attending a stodgy, Ivy League School."

"Stodgy!" Mark exclaimed. "Dartmouth is not stodgy. It happens to have one of the best Plastic Surgery programs in the country."

"Plastics?" Arizona snorted as she patted him on the shoulder conciliatorily. "Sofia is going to specialize in Pediatric Surgery. Not Plastics."

It was Mark's turn to snort derisively. "Plastics is where the money is."

"Peds is where the _joy_ is," she countered. "What if she decides to follow Callie into Ortho?"

Mark pondered that for a moment. "Not the worst decision that she could make." He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Just as long as she doesn't decide to go the Cardio route."

"Agreed." Arizona searched the crowd and spotted Sofia's godmother at the bar, nursing a drink. "And that means we have to keep an eye on Cristina. I have no doubt that she'll attempt to fill Sofia's head with the joys of valve replacements and quintuple bypass surgery at every opportunity she gets."

"No unsupervised visits," Mark chimed in. "See this co-parenting thing isn't so bad."

"No, it's not," Arizona realized. "There was a time that I didn't think we could be civil to one another, let alone agree on important issues." She paused. "I may have misjudged you."

"Really?"

"Don't push it," she warned him. "I said _may_. I maintain the right to change my mind as I see fit."

"Duly noted, Robbins."

"Do you mind if I cut in?" They both turn to find Callie standing behind them, arms folded across her chest.

"Depends," Mark replied, noncommittally, "on who you want to dance with."

"My wife," she announced, with a happy grin.

He took Arizona's hand, still grasped in his own, and held it out to her. "By all means."

Callie looked at the offered hand and surprised them both by pulling Mark and Arizona into an abrupt, heartfelt hug. "Thank you," she whispered. They broke apart and Mark stepped away, making a shooing motion with his hands as he backed off the dance floor and made his way towards the bar.

"That was…" Arizona started to say, before falling silent. She stole a glance up at Callie's face and frowned at the tears glistening on her wife's cheeks. "Hey," she said gently, "don't cry."

Callie sniffed and shook her head. "You're amazing, you know that?"

"Uh," Arizona blushed, ducking her head. "I wouldn't go that far."

Callie cupped Arizona's chin and lifted it up until their eyes met. "You…you let me have my dream, Arizona. Even when it was so very different from yours."

"Yeah, but you helped me realize that dreams can change," Arizona insisted. "This…right now…with you, me and Sofia…_this_ is my dream now."

"Like I said," Callie whispered, ducking her head to kiss Arizona soundly. "Amazing."

"It sure is."


End file.
